


Time After Time

by torigates



Category: Bones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates





	Time After Time

It doesn’t happen very often, but when Booth gets drunk or _really_ tired he becomes a touchy-feely person.

He’ll get really close to her, ignoring personal physical boundaries he’s usually so conscious of, and press his face into her shoulder.

It happens so infrequently that it always catches Brennan off guard. The first time she saw Booth drunk was after the case with his old mentor. They were sitting outside and Booth was laughing, leaning against her. ‘He’s drunk,’ she realised and it came as a shock. Booth’s always been so strong, so steady.

A five year-old goes missing, and they can’t get to him in time. They find his naked body on the side of the road, and Booth looks away, sharp.

He’s angry the entire case, yelling at Hodgins, threatening suspects. Brennan sees him punch a wall when you’re denied the search warrant they so desperately need.

“That sick son of a bitch is going to get away with it,” he tells her, jaw tight with fury.

She doesn’t know what to say.

“He’s scared, sweetie,” Angela tells her later.

“Scared?” Brennan has never seen Booth scared. Rationally speaking she knows all human beings feel fear, but she never thought of Booth as being scared of anything.

Angela looks at her in that patient way of hers. “He’s a father, Brennan. Of course a case like this is going to scare him.”

 _Of course._ Brennan wants to know when these things will become obvious for her too. It wasn’t that she forgot Booth was a father, just sometimes it was hard for her too keep all the different sides of Booth all together in her mind. He was just Booth.

Booth was so often the one comforting her, being there for Brennan, that it was really unsettling when he wasn’t that steady presence.

They do catch the guy, but a little boy is still dead.

Brennan finds Booth in his office.

“Are you allowed to drink in here?” She asks him.

He shrugs. “I’m done for the day.”

She stares at him for a long time. Brennan’s not sure if she can see fear in his face, but then she never was good at reading people.

“Come on,” she says.

“What?”

“Let’s go get you some food.”

“Fine,” he says getting up slowly. “But I think you better drive.”

“You never let me drive,” is all she can think to say.

“Well, I’m not usually drinking, either,” he tells her.

She wants to take him to the diner or Sid’s, but he directs her to a bar. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” She asks. “You’ve already had quite a bit to drink.”

He leans in really close and pokes her in the shoulder. “I’ll be the judge of that, hmm?”

They walk in, and there are a lot of people there, but they manage to get a table in the back.

Booth orders a beer. Brennan gets coffee and some French fries.

“You should eat,” she tells him.

Booth eats a fry. “Happy?”

“It’s a start.”

Brennan wants to talk about the case. More accurately, she wants to talk about how the case affected Booth, but she doesn’t know where to start.

“You were pretty hard on Hodgins,” she says eventually.

Booth takes a long sip of his beer. “I know.”

Brennan’s not good at this kind of thing, but she senses she should let Booth go on. He’s quiet for a long time, and Brennan starts to worry that she should say something.

“It was a tough case, Bones.”

“You were scared.”

He looks at her, “What makes you say that?” He asks.

“Angela says that as a father these kinds of cases scare you.”

“Ahh.” Another long sip of beer. “Well, Angela’s right. These cases do scare the crap outta me. It’s not right! He was just a baby.” Booth looks away.

“You did everything you could, Booth,” she says. “We all did.”

“I know,” he says. “But it wasn’t enough.”

Booth has another beer. And another.

“Come on, Booth. Let’s get you home.”

She helps him to his feet and he puts his arm around her shoulders.

“Thanks, Bones.”

“That’s what partners do, right?”

They’re standing beside the passenger side of her car. “Right,” he says and he puts his hands on her shoulders.

They stand quietly like that for a moment before it becomes too much. Booth, the case, their entire partnership. Everything.

She looks away.

“Hey,” Booth says taking a hand off her shoulder and placing it on her chin. “You okay?”

She looks at him again and for a moment she thinks that he’s going to kiss her. He doesn’t.

“Yeah.”

“Alright,” he says pulling her close. She can’t even pretend it’s a guy hug.

“Let’s go.”

//

They’re at the diner the next morning and Booth is drinking his coffee in silence.

“I think you almost kissed me last night.”

Booth almost spits out his coffee. “What? Bones, no.”

“Do you even remember last night?” She asks.

“Of course I do, Bones. I only had a few drinks.”

“I think you had more than a few, Booth. When I found you in your office you were already pretty intoxicated.”

“No, I wasn’t!” He shouts, then seeing people look over curiously he ducks his head. “No, I wasn’t,” he repeats in a whisper.

“I don’t blame you, Booth. The last case was extremely stressful for you. It makes sense that you would choose to relax through alcohol.”

“Are you saying that the only way I would kiss you would be if I was drunk?” He demands.

She pauses to consider this. “No, not necessarily. But you can’t deny that you are normally uptight about expressing romantic and sexual feelings.”

“I am not uptight!”

“Yes, you are.”

“Well what about you?” He asks.

“What about me?”

“The only way you kissed me was because Caroline made you!”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You claim to be so liberated, but anytime someone gets close to you in anyway you retreat into science and logic.”

“What are you saying?” She asks. “Do you want to kiss me?”

“What? No. I’m just –” He sighs and runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “Do you want to kiss me?”

“No. That would just complicate our partnership. People give us a hard enough time as it is.”

“Exactly,” Booth says.

“Right.”

They’re quiet for a moment. “So what did we just agree on?” Booth asks.

“You don’t want to kiss me, and I don’t want to kiss you.”

“Right,” he says.

“Right.”

They drink their coffee in silence.

“It’s not that I find you unattractive,” Booth tells her after a moment. “It would just make things…”

“Complicated,” she finishes.

“Yes!”

“You’re an excellent kisser,” she tells him.

“Thank you,” Booth replies. “So are you.”

They stare at each other for a while. Eventually Booth looks away.

“Thanks, Bones.”

“For what?” She asks confused.

“Last night. Today. Everything.”

She’s not sure she understands, but if Booth is thanking her she must have done something right. That’s enough for now.

“You’re welcome.”


End file.
